Benjamin Hoadly and his wife. Oil painting by Francis Hayman.

Hoadly was physician to King George II. He was son of Bishop Hoadly and brother of John Hoadly, dramatist and chaplain to the Prince of Wales

The lady portrayed might be Hoadly's first wife, Elizabeth Bath, or his second, Anna Armstrong. She is shown in 17th-century costume and holding a mask, in allusion to Hoadly's activity as a playwright: his comedy The suspicious husband, written with his brother John's assistance, was performed at Covent Garden in 1747 with the participation of Garrick

1 painting : oil on canvas ; canvas 74.5 x 61 cm

Aileen Ribeiro, 'Some evidence of the influence of the dress of the seventeenth century on eighteenth-century portraiture', The Burlington magazine, December 1977, 119: 837-838

Brian Allen, Francis Hayman, New Haven 1987, p. 172, checklist no. 28

Christopher Wright et al., British and Irish paintings in public collections, New Haven and London: Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2006, p. 404

Wellcome Collection 45672i